How should Chelsea's 2024–25 season be graded?

New York Times

a day ago

Chelsea's 2024–25 campaign undoubtedly ended on a high.
They clinched their first major honour since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover after defeating Real Betis 4-1 in the Europa Conference League final, and secured Champions League qualification for the first time under their ownership with a 1-0 win away at Nottingham Forest on the final day to finish fourth in the Premier League.
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However, the season also had its lows.
They were uncharacteristically knocked out of both the FA and Carabao Cups in the fourth round by Brighton and Newcastle, and won just two of 10 Premier League games between December 22 and February 22 — a stretch that included their heaviest loss of the season, a 3-0 defeat away at Brighton.
So, how should their season be viewed overall?
On the latest episode of Straight Outta Cobham, with help from listeners, Matt Davies-Adams and Liam Twomey discussed how Chelsea's 2024–25 season should be graded.
A partial transcript has been edited for this article. The full episode is available on the Straight Outta Cobham feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Matt: We asked listeners to grade Chelsea's 2024-25 campaign, and lots of them got in touch with us. We had a couple of A grades from Yahoo and Andrew. Yahoo said, 'We achieved the Champions League and won a trophy, what more could we want in season one with Enzo Maresca?' Andrew said, 'We hit all the objectives, and unlike the last two seasons, have shown some sign of improvement.' Alan graded it a B and said, 'It would be higher if the football hadn't been such a struggle to watch at times and if we hadn't dropped five points against Ipswich. I can't argue with the end result, though, and stability will hopefully bring progress.'
There were also a couple of slightly lower grades which came in. Four Aces said, 'I'd give it a C+, it was decent but it came down to the last game in the league and the second half in the Conference League final. It could have gone very differently.' GCP graded it a C- and said, 'Bare minimum given the level of investment and the relative standard of the league. I think the squad was good enough to get another 15 points. I want to see evidence of Maresca getting the best out of players other than Cucurella.'
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B or B+ feels about right to me, Liam. Obviously, it could have been very different had things not gone the way they did right at the end of the campaign, but you can't say that Chelsea haven't achieved what they set out to at the start of the season. Albeit I like that caveat from Alan that the football was difficult to watch at times, and we'd be lying if we said it wasn't, wouldn't we?
Liam: Yeah, but I think you also have to view it in the context of, 'Remember what the football was like under Graham Potter in that wasteland of a season two years ago?' That's still the personal low point for me in a decade of covering Chelsea. And then last year, I know people remember some of the thrilling, more goal-happy games under Pochettino, but there were also some pretty sterile possession games against low blocks. Admittedly, that wasn't a completely new thing this season, and yes they scored 13 more goals under Poch in 2023-24, but they also conceded 20 more goals. So when I look at the step forward this season, it's primarily defensive and primarily in terms of structure. And yes, that isn't going to get Maresca any brownie points with fans for entertainment, but I think it's an essential step for Chelsea to actually become a better team.
Overall, I'd grade it a B. To me, a B is a solid pass, like job done… at least it was for me at GCSE. But certainly a B in the Conference League because that was par for the course, they had to win that. Even Real Betis, the best team that they faced, were significantly less talented and that showed in the final, but they still took care of business. And it looked for a while like they might not in the Premier League, even though the first half of the season lined up brilliantly for them. Until the turn of the year, there was no one making a play for second, never mind fourth. And I know Aston Villa and Newcastle finished strongly, and Man City finally got their act together to some degree and made it competitive. But Chelsea had this big advantage that they then blew away essentially in the space of two or three miserable months.
But they pulled themselves together when they needed to, they found that grit, and they finished really strongly. So they deserve credit for that. But when you're looking at the season in totality with the way the campaign panned out, and looking at the other teams, I didn't think there was much of an excuse for Chelsea not to make the top five. So to finish fourth meant job done. Chelsea can move on now and look to strengthen this summer, look to have a good showing in the Club World Cup, and we'll see where it goes from there. But it was a solid and encouraging first season for Enzo Maresca.
You can listen to full episodes of 'Straight Outta Cobham' for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
(Top Photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)